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SUTRAS
HOW TO DISSOLVE KARMA
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ness of our old state. Yet at the same time we are watching this confinement from another (higher) level that is characterized by a growing awareness of more expansive dimensions. As this perception deepens, we become able to steer our life more consciously towards further expansion.
The most important - and the simplest - move into this direction is to prevent the acquisition of new karma (samvara). Though this strategy seems far from dissolving our previously bound karma, it is far easier to practice and also generates much faster results. This process takes two steps: - Step one is our decision to stop all activities that will bind new karma - it is our resolve to end prejudice, intolerance, laziness, skepticism, lack of knowledge, intense negative emotions etc. - Step two is actually preventing the acquisition of new karmic matter. This happens automatically when we put the decision taken in step one into action. Splitting this strategy into two steps seems like superfluous exactitude. Yet we only need to realize how often in our life we make highly concrete decisions - and then fail miserably to carry through our resolve. When we - for once - discard the thousand excuses we normally justify these failures with, then we know with dead certainty that a liuge gap exists between our decisions and us actually doing what we intended. We only need to remember how often we decided to exercise our body regularly - starting 'tomorrow' - and then tomorrow never came. We only need to recall how many times we were determined to slim down, to stop smoking, to drink less, to
4 Dissolving previously bound karmic attachments is far harder. To
consciously force karmic processes (see sutra 3 - tapas) requires considerable awareness of our actions. To succeed we need solid grounding in the clarity of the fourth stage of development (sanıyaktvi). When we employ the process of tapas prematurely and in flawed understanding, we may easily acquire intense new karmic attachments. It is therefore recommended to start this only after we have reached the second phase of gunasthana 4.
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